Cape Cod Cranberry Bog Harvest Season

Along with the Autumn season comes a well anticipated, delightful spectacle for all, and a celebration for many Cape Codders. Much of this can be seen on tours or by stopping at scenic overlooks along the Cape Cod Rail Trail. We hosted 2 tour groups this past week, full of cycling enthusiasts.

'Cape Cod Today' in their 9/24 issue, highlighted the industry of Cape Cod Cranberry Bogs. While it was all very interesting, i enjoyed the glimpse into the life of a Cape Cod Cranberry Bog owner and operator.

As a life long Cape Cod resident, I had known one thing for certain. Do not miss the annual Cape Cod Cranberry Festival.

(FOR THOSE WHO DID, THE WELLFLEET OYSTER FESTIVAL IS ONLY WEEKS AWAY. The Oysterfest easily takes first place amongst our Cape Cod Annual Festivals. By the way, the Oysterfest in Wellfleet, is 10 minutes north of us, and brought almost 20,000 people to Cape Cod last year. The event is always the third weekend in October.

In particular, i thought it was interesting to learn of both, wet and dry methods of Cranberry harvesting. The dry harvest option involves using a wide tractor attachment, that shakes the ripe fruit right off the vine for collection.
HIstorically looked at as more common, today's most recent irrigation technology has allowed for the wet method of cranberry harvesting. While more efficient, our bogs are flooded more commonly for large surface water screening. The ripened fruit, after floating to the water's surface, is then collected in mass amounts, to fill almost 40% of the Ocean Spray trucks. Thus, giving you a great idea of how much Cape Cod contributes to our country's Cranberry production.

And Ocean Spray owns just about every one of these bogs. If not, they buy the fruit from the owners. Hooray big brother.

Stay tuned for Oysterfest update.

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